Shopper has close call

PATRICK REYNOLDS

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, December 10, 2002

The woman, whose name will remain anonymous, was doing some Christmas shopping at Oshman's department store last Thursday morning. After paying for her merchandise, she was in a hurry to get to another store and didn't pay much attention to the credit card exchange, she admits.

"(The cashier) told me he gave me everything back. I specifically remembered because he went out of his way to tell me he had given the credit card back," she recalled last week.

"I couldn't find my card, but I figured it was there somewhere. Plus, I was in a hurry."

The woman then went next door to shop at Stein Mart, oblivious to the startling fact that she had just been robbed while checking out in line at the store. "When I went to pay (at Stein Mart), I noticed my credit cards were, in fact, not there, like the guy had told me," she said.

The woman then called the manager at Oshman's, where she asked if her credit card was still at the counter.

No such luck, the manager said. There was no credit card at the counter, and the cashier working there had gone to lunch, she said. The cashier then allegedly used the card for a string of additional thefts, including a $500 credit tab at Baybrook Mall, $40 worth of merchandise at Kmart, gasoline at a convenience store - the thief even used the stolen card to grab a bite at Hooters, she said.

By the time she called to have her card canceled, the credit card company told her it had already been shut off because of the suspicious use that day. The woman spent that evening down at the police station, going over the details with police.

They apprehended the would-be thief that afternoon, she was told. Unexplicably, he returned back to work after his illegal holiday shopping spree. Police also told her the young man was a suspect in a similar crime that had taken place only one day before, at the same location.

"The manager (of Oshman's) told me he had only been working there a short time, and that they were short-staffed when they hired him," she said.

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Luckily, the woman is not being held responsible for the exorbitant rates that were run up on her card. But she reminded others to keep a close eye on their plastic when out and about this holiday season.